The Catch (baseball)

This article is about the famous baseball catch. For other uses see The Catch (disambiguation).

The Catch: Willie Mays hauls in Vic Wertz's drive at the warning track in the 1954 World Series.

Mays and Polo Grounds center field distance marker

The Catch refers to a memorable defensive baseball play by Willie Mays on September 29, 1954, during Game 1 of the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians at the Polo Grounds in New York. The score was tied 2-2 in the top of the eighth inning. Starting pitcher Sal Maglie walked Larry Doby and gave up a single to Al Rosen. So, with runners on first and second, Giants manager Leo Durocher summoned left-handed relief pitcher Don Liddle to replace Maglie and pitch to Cleveland's Vic Wertz, also a left-hander.

Wertz worked the count to two balls and a strike, before crushing Liddle's fourth pitch to deep center field. Some reports say the ball traveled 450 feet, which is an exaggeration, but in many stadiums the shot would have been a home run and given the Indians a 5-2 lead. However, this was the spacious Polo Grounds, and Giants center fielder Willie Mays, who was playing in shallow center field, made an on-the-run over-the-shoulder catch (looking like a wide receiver) to make the out. Having caught the ball, he immediately spun and threw the ball, losing his hat in characteristic style. Doby, the runner on second, might have been able to score the go-ahead run had he tagged at the moment the ball was caught; but as it was, he ran when the ball was hit, and then had to scramble back to retag and only got as far as third base. Liddle was then relieved by Marv Grissom, to whom he supposedly remarked "Well, I got my man!"

Jack Brickhouse was calling the game along with Russ Hodges. The audio has turned up here and there, such as on the CD in the book And the Fans Roared and also as accompaniment to the World Series film, as with a Youtube item.[1] It is unclear, from the broadcasting style, whether this is a radio or a TV broadcast:

• "There's a long drive waaay back in center field...waaay baaack, baaack, it is...caaaaaught by Wil-lie Mays! [garbled - some say it sounds like "Say-Hey Mays"] [pause for crowd noise] The runner on second, Doby, is able to tag and go to third; Wille Mays just brought this crowd to its feet... with a catch... which must have been an optical illusion to a lot of people. Boy! [pause] See where that 483 foot mark is in centerfield? The ball itself... Russ, you know this ballpark better than anyone else I know... had to go about 460, didn't it?"
• "It certainly did, and I don't know how Willie did it, but he's been doing it all year."

The play prevented the Indians from taking the lead and, in the bottom of the 10th, the Giants won the game on their way to sweeping the Series. The Catch is often considered to be one of the best and most memorable plays in the history of baseball because of the difficulty of the play and the importance of the game itself. Many people have argued, however, that The Catch is remembered so well because it was made in New York City, by a player for a New York team, and on television in a World Series game, whereas other catches (including many made by Mays) were less celebrated because they came in regular season games or in other cities. Mays himself did not believe "The Catch" to be the best defensive play he ever made [2].

See also

• Immaculate Reception
• The Catch (American football)
• Hand of God goal
• The Drive
• The Flip
• The Shot
• The Fumble
• Shot Heard 'Round the World (baseball)
• The Play
• The Tackle

External links

• TIME's World Series Memorable Moment #7: The Catch
• The Sporting News's 25 Greatest Moments in Baseball #9: The Catch
• The catch on youtube

Sources

• Shortly after the 1954 Series, Arnold Hano wrote a book called A Day in the Bleachers, describing the game from his vantage point in the Polo Grounds cheap seats. He devoted an entire chapter to The Catch (and The Throw that followed it), describing everything that was going on in his head and in the stadium as the ball traversed its high arc from far away at home plate to near where the writer sat. At first, it looked like an easy catch; then, as Mays continued his full-tilt sprint, the writer became certain it was going to be over his head; then he became equally certain that Mays would outrun it: "For the second time, I knew Mays would make the catch." That fascinating and unique chapter was reproduced in one entry in The Fireside Book of Baseball series, along with an abridged collection of that series called The Baseball Reader. Hano would also go on to write a biography of Willie Mays along with his other books on sports figures and events. The 1954 book was reissued in a 50th anniversary edition in 2004.
• A book called The Fans Roared, published in 2000, contains an audio capture of this play as described by World Series TV announcer Jack Brickhouse along with regular Giants announcer Russ Hodges. Brick is a little hard to hear over the screams of the crowd at the moment of the catch, but shortly afterward as the crowd settled down he said, "Willie Mays just brought this crowd to its feet with a catch that must have looked like an optical illusion to a lot of people!" He would go on to use that expression in the World Series film of this classic sports moment.